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Today I put all of our Deco elements together to create two beautiful wedding invitations based on the Disco Deco WeddingBrand Style Guide for Brent & Jacqueline. I received a gorgeous font for review from Paulo W at Intellecta Design called Invitation Script. It is a calligraphic superscript family that includes multiple variations for each letter as well as ornaments and fleurons. You could literally spend days playing with the possibilities. If that is not enough value, they currently have a special introductory offer of 25% off at MY FONTS. This was the perfect project for a font like this, as it would work as the fluid and elegant counterpart to the more hard-edged Deco fonts.

This first invitation is more formal and takes advantage of all of the variations of Invitation Script as well as its lovebird ornament. I kept the line spacing or “leading” tight so that it looks like it was hand-calligraphed. You could also use thermography on this one and that would give it an engraved look at a fraction of the cost.

In the second version, I paired Invitation Script’s ornaments with a revival Deco font called Arthur Cabinet which is also available at My Fonts.

Paper choice can make or break the look of your invitation suite as well as your budget. It can be quite expensive so you will have to shop around in order to find a paper that is both high quality AND cost effective. I am sharing some of my favorite sources for paper and envelopes that provide a beautiful assortment for all budgets.

MAKE YOUR OWNI love to custom-line my envelopes and sometimes I even create my own paper pattern. I choose and draw a design in Illustrator and then make a pattern with it. Illustrator CS6 has a new pattern tool that offers different pattern options for you to choose from. Here is a great video that shows you how this works.

An antique Ottoman carpet was the inspiration for my carnation pattern and was a perfect choice since Art Deco is all about symmetry and the exotic. I colored my pattern in the soft gray that our couple requested and printed it out on a digital Japanese paper that I got from Hiromi.

Using an envelope template from Paper Source, I traced and cut out my envelope liners. Then, I placed the paper in the envelope and stuck it down with an archival glue stick.

If you decide to line your own envelopes, make an evening of it. Invite friends and family to help you put your invitation suite together. Make it festive with some good food and fabulous wine and put an assembly line in place. Getting the envelopes done early is always a good idea so that the calligrapher can get started addressing them. That way, they are ready to go when the invitations come back from the printer.

Here is a recap of the elements for the Disco Deco WeddingBrand Style Guide we are building for a young couple we will call Brent & Jacqueline.

1. Art Deco style is characterized by rich colors and bold geometricshapes, as well as exotic and luxurious materials. Art Deco is a given as the couple will be married in an historic, art deco building. Brent and Jacqueline said that they preferred the curved ornamental aspects of Art Deco (but not too formal) as opposed to the hard, geometric forms.

2. WeddingBrand Vision Statement - Hollywood Chic juxtaposed by the quaintness of Culver City, where whimsical elegance meets a bit of cheekiness at a grand cocktail party . . . all reflected in a disco ball!

4. For their Color Palette, they chose to go with the metallic colors of Art Deco, especially the silvery grays.

These elements led me to look at traditional as well as art deco revival fonts—there have been many designed in recent years in this style. I created this chart for you so that you could mix and match to your hearts content. If you do not have much experience with type, refer back to our Type Tips from a previous post.